, 1887-09-14
Fl PLAQUES OF INDIA.
SOME OF THE TORMENTS OF Ex-
ISTENCE IN THE ORIENT.

None but those who have become
parched and crisped by the desiccating
sun of India-who lave travelled reeking
on the cracked and splintered earth, be-
meath the great sky fixed ocean of molten
silver-can appreciate thoroughly the free,
broad, bracing freshness Of a Californian
breeze. The surface of everything I'M
sheltered is polished by the SUMS rays un-
til the eye becomes bleared with merely
doing its duty. The sleek backs and
wings of the thousand crows which wit
on the path shine like new rupees the
green leaves hang motionless and glisten
as the wavelets in the sea. Even the ma
tives, brought forth by parents who have
never known another land, lave huge
turbans over and round their heads, and
more particularly on that portion of the
neck Immediately below the organ of
philoprogenitiveness, lest the sun SHOULD
smite them In his wrath"
To guard against the dangerous influence
of the sun man has sought out many in
ventions. Carriages have double roofs;
hats are built of pith and are ventilated by
a cunning cupola in miniature ingeniously
implanted in the CROWN; parasols are gil
gantic wooden mushrooms, and garments
are of any substance that can possibly be
obtained, which, in weight and fiber. does
not exceed gossamer. The walls of the
houses are about three feet thick, veran-
daed and terraced round. The rooms are
halls worthy of containing the common
council of any small American mining
town. They are matted and not carpeted,
unless in some houses where appearances
are more studied than comfort. The glass
windows have each outer ones of wood,
similar to the Venitian ones so prevalent
In Californian houses. These are closely
shut fourteen hours of the twenty-four.
Huge squares of matted straw are placed
before such openings as cannot be closed,
and it Is the duty of a servant to sprinkle
them with the coolest water obtainable ten
times an hour.
TIL motive is obvious. The hot wind
passing through the damp cusca Is cooled
almost TO a welcome point, and from n
5courge transferred by a simple device into
a refreshment. We live in the breath of
the punka, for all day and night n ser
want stands by to fan us. If he halts for
one second a glow of feverish heat steals
over us, and the punka wallan submits
mutely TO the castigation he deserves and
most inevitably gets. These poor wretches,
possessed, it may be, of more intellect han
brutes, but undoubtedly of less instinct
and sagacity, ply their monotonous occu-
pations hke pieces of i'll fitting machinery.
They are certain to fall asleep unless re-
tanned at high pressure by the constant APP
plication of a horsewhip.
The second plague in life in India, fully
as monstrous as the first, is-servants.
Take a professional man whose income is
500 rupees, OF $3.50, a month. He does
not desire, in all probability, to domesti-
cate himself in the cherries circle of n
boarding house community, where his alb
solute cost to the amiable landlady will
be about 20 rupees per month, IN which
he is called every four weeks to pay 800
per cent. He therefore takes a house and
becomes, he blindly imagines, ''his own
MASTER
The house is taken. 1t is situated in a
compound which means in America
sits own ground" So spontaneous is
vegetation that a 'mallee gardener is
Indispensable. Let the masters tastes be
ever 80 much inclined to till his own gar
den and rear marvels in botany and horti-
culture, the heat forbids him. The pay of
the malice will vary between @ and 8
rupees per month go. The next neces-
sary creature is the 'mater," or house
sweeper-a man who always seems the
acme of devotedness and activity, but who
has really a remarkably easy life Of it gen
orally. His pay is equal to the mallee's.
The "bhestie," who may be met with in
the twelve signs of the zodiac under the
nomenclature of "Aquarius," is the serv-
ant to whom the tractable and sensitive
heart most i~nclines to be liberal. He fills
his "muscock" IA sealskin) many times Il
day with pure water and r%eplenishes the
bath. He fills the house buckets and del
uges the carriage when it is being cleaned.
Our gratitude, extreme as it is, goes no
further han @ rupees. Then comes the
table servants and the cook. Pursuing
the list we each the ''~sirdarbearer."
This man trims the lamps and pulls the
punka, and does nothing else for the
world. His wages are 7 rupees.
Another and even more important man
is the bearer. Say, old Indian of thirty
hot years standing, how often have you
blessed this man above all others' He is
valet, banker and general protector over
all things you may possess; he wipes you
dry as finder when you issue from your
bath; he puts you hose on while you sit
on n chair in a %reverie; he does the same
good turn for all the garments you desire
to don. He has you hat and gloves beau
tifully prepared for you; he takes charge
OF your floating capital in the way of any
odd rupees which you may happen to
leave in your discarded waistcoat, and
you may safely trust him with n thousand.
He studies your every movement and re-
places all mutilated buttons; in fact, he is
to n great extent u wife, and if you give
him n full and valuable wardrobe to be
lord and master over rs long as he may
stay in your service, you will find 1t undi-
minished and precisely as you gave it.
If a resident here is a married man he
may, in the nature of things, be blessed
with household gods-each god needs an
''ayah." She is, Of course, u emale SER
want, and the most troublesome, except
the syces, Of them all. The wages of an
ayah are very changeable and unlxcd,
few under 10 rupees a month are of much
good, though some are obtainablc at half
that sum Besides the regular ayah to
the wife and each child there must be the
'matcranni." 1t is her business to do
certain things which, if Xecuted by the
Others, would lose them their castles.
To readers versed in the technicalities
OF natural history the third plague of
India will be recognizable by the name of
"CuleA,' but is better known by the name
Of mosquito. The curtains round our
beds mt nights are not only aluablc safe
guards against mosquitoes, but against a
hundred other insects, some Of them very
r.r4l-ive in appearance. Grasshoppers,
flying beetles, fire flies and others yet
Iau.c horrible would invade our sauctu-
@',. but can only gaze at us through the
Il .tcatc squares of our gauze prison.
...y mum and buzz untiringly, like the
n.arjng fish of Ceylon, occasionally rising
louder in their melody than the human